A long time ago...

 ...in a galaxy...

No wait, wrong intro.

Right. Pour yourself a drink and have a seat.

A long time ago (in the mid 90s), I got hooked into playing online RPGs, specifically MUSHes (for which the Wikipedia link will help those who don't know what I'm talking about). One in particular, Chivalry, went through ... um, four generations, of which I played on 2, 3 and 4. 

Somewhen around 2009, having kept in occasional contact with some of my friends from Chivalry, I got roped in to a play-by-Google-Wave game (remember Wave?) that had picked up some while after Chivalry 4. It's been going (despite the regrettable demise of Wave - we moved to Docs) since then, somewhat off and on as people had real life intervene until pretty much now. 15 years in that incarnation.

I've met three or four of the players, narrowly missed meeting another.

Sad to say, Sunny, who played a number of amazing characters on the game, passed away this morning, a few hours ago as I write. We met once at a SF/Music con around the turn of the millenium, but she has essentially been a friend with whom I've shared some incredible moments of creativity for the past three decades, and one of the best RPers and (perforce) creative writers it has been my pleasure to share a universe with.

As I said when Rob Holden passed, especially in this modern world where friends are often not people we've necessarily met in person, grab the chances you get to tell folks what they mean to you. You never know when that may be taken away from you. 

A toast, once more.

To friends near and far away, passed and still with us, and to the memory of an amazing friend and rôle-player, Suzanne "Sunny" Capwell.

What's rules and what isn't?

Opening with an aside - yes, I was aware when I originally started drafting this article, a year or more ago, of the One D&D announcement, and the likelihoods of lots of comments all over the D&D-social-media-verse. I may add my two-pennorth on the UA material per se in a while, but for now, here's the video in case you missed it. 

Explanation of radio silence hereabouts to follow in another post. I just found this in the pending pile and thought I'd finish it.

Ok, that done, and branching off from some of the back-then just-announced UA material, here's a thought for you.

Are races and backgrounds part of the core D&D rules?

I've actually discussed this briefly before, but having read the UA stuff, I'm even more convinced that the answer is 'no'. You could possibly even argue that the spell lists aren't, and I'd probably not disagree much, Races and backgrounds are very much part of the setting, not the rules: I would, for instance, not be in the least surprised when Shadow of the Dragon Queen comes out that the list of available PC races is not 'everything in every rulebook so far', any more than it is in my world. Now, to be fair, Krynn is reachable by spelljammer (or one assumes, other planar travel means), so there is (and doubtless people will make) a case that any PC race can have turned up somehow. (So maybe I'm going to be proved wrong :D)

But...

If every PC race from every rulebook is available 'because the rules say so', then you take away one of the things that makes a setting special. OK, perhaps we can tone that down a bit, and say 'not every PC race is native to the world'. Maybe that sits better. 

"But", people will say, "PCs should be special". Yup. Yup they should. PCs are the heroes of the story, and they should wind up being special, being heroic (if it's that kind of campaign), and I will never deny that. And yes, if you can come up with a background for your PC being from a non-native race to the world, more power to you.

But.

Constraints are good. I've had some of the most fun ever playing in a campaign setting that is restricted, where I can't be just anyone: in some cases I've chosen to impose those restrictions myself (e.g. playing an ordinary mortal in a Vampire: The Masquerade setting), in some cases they come with the setting (Krynn as of the original DL modules being a great example. I think this boils down to the whole 'if everyone is special, then no-one is', which is largely why I'm not a V:TM fan (purely because it made vampires NOT be special (or required you to redefine 'special'). 

The caveat, of course, is this only holds as long as the players are aware of the constraints inherent in the setting from the start (remember what Session Zero is for!). I.e. they are aware that there are constraints WHEN they sign up for the campaign. 

End thought, at least for now.